CAPITOL MALL

We all had a good sleep and the boys slept until 7am, a good solid 10 hours.  GG had clean clothes out of the dryer and complimented Aidan for having a pair of underpants in the wash.  Everyone else is on their 3rd day on one pair, so GG demanded 4 pair of undies in the wash tonight.

After breakfast the boys played in the back yard for awhile and then watched some TV.  Then it was time to make sandwiches for lunch and we were off to the Capitol Mall.  When we got to the Capitol building there was a big crowd of people on the steps and someone was giving a speech about protecting our families and children from people who agree with same sex marriage.  We discussed some of our fundamental human rights, such as freedom of religion, equal rights and separation of church and state.  GG and Grandpa tend to stop us all and pontificate from time to time.

We were tired of being cramped up in the car, so we decided to walk from the Capitol Building along the National Mall, and down past the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial.  As usual, it was hot and muggy, and rain was predicted.  But there was cloud cover, so we were not as hot as Ryan and Isabella were when they did this walk.

ABBC ran along, jumped over the chain fences, rolled and wrestled, and generally used up a lot of energy as we made our way along the paths. Finally we made it to the Washington Monument, but we couldn't go in because when GG tried to make reservations it was all booked through August.  The boys did roll down the hill in front of the monument though, to commemorate the historic Myrah/Westrook visit of yore.

We stopped at the WWII memorial and examined the huge columns with the name of each state and territory carved on them. And then we walked alongside the Reflection Pond and reflected upon Martin Luther King and his historic speech.  When he made this speech in 1963 there were so many people on the Mall to hear him they were standing all along the park in the pond, solid humanity all the way up to the Washington Memorial.

At the Lincoln Memorial the boys ran up the steps, counting 99 to the top.  There they admired the majestic statue of Abraham Lincoln and read the text of two of his famous speeches.  In the basement of the memorial we found marble tablets with many important quotes from Abraham Lincoln.  One of the most important is that if a promise is made, the promise must be kept.  He was referring to the Declaration of Independence promise that "All men are created equal."  Another one I liked was that he stated "I would not be a slave, therefore, I will not make any man a slave."

Leaving the Lincoln Memorial we walked over to the Vietnam War Memorial.  It is sobering to look at the thousands of names etched in the wall, and realize that many of those names were young boys, 18, 19, 20, who had moms and dads, brothers and sisters, wives and children.   They never got to live their lives and the people who loved them are still sad today.  We were very polite and reverent as we walked along, reading name after name.  We looked in the directory but there were no Myrahs.  We found 5 Westbrooks.

We ate lunch in the park and played volley-water-bottle.  At 3pm we decided to save the American History Museum for another day and headed home before another rush hour.

We had barbequed chicken with rice-a-roni and salad for dinner.  Everybody was so hungry there was not a scrap left over.  Compliments were heard on the chicken, and even the salad, but the big hit was the rice-a-roni.  The boys had 4 and 5 helpings.

Showers and bed by 9pm, but they all made telephone calls home at 9 and stayed up until GG scolded them off and turned off the lights.